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Monday, September 5, 2011

Between Russia And Syria

By Mohammad El Ashab

Russia
is no longer the Soviet Union, and today’s world is quite different from the
era of the Cold War. Nevertheless, the fog has not lifted yet and some Arab
countries are still caught in some ideological worldviews that are in denial
with respect to the events that took place in the past two decades, starting
with the collapse of the Red Empire, all the way to the economic and financial
crisis that has necessitated the reconsideration of the present world order.

Russia’s
name often figures when it comes to internal developments in certain Arab
countries. Whenever these countries are faced with crises or uprisings, they
look in the direction of Moscow, in the hope that the latter would shield them
from Security Council resolutions, especially those involving the protection of
civilians and their loss of legitimacy. It is as if the alliance with Moscow
allows for committing crimes against humanity. And one can almost fail to
understand the reasons why the interests of these countries converge with those
of Russia, only in such situations, when this wound could be avoided by simply
refraining from certain practices and violations that are soon denounced by the
international community.

Even
if Moscow’s stature allows Russia to raise its voice high in the Security
Council, to veto, express its reservation, or otherwise approve a resolution,
this should not act as a pretext for the countries that are violating treaties
and norms, under a Russian cloak and behind a now declawed Russian bear.

This
dilemma is reminiscent of the naïve statements of Col. Muammar Gaddafi, when he
wanted to defend the logic of mass murder. He gave as examples the incidents
that took place at the Soviet parliament, at the Tiananmen Square in China, and
another incident that occurred in a U.S. county. He found nothing to adduce
except for some arbitrary examples, which he had failed to realize had brought
a lot of backlash upon their perpetrators. But the sure thing is that the
Russians are not interested in revisiting a book that they have long since cast
aside, the same way they had lived through the breakdown of the concept of
ideological war, and replaced that with a rapprochement with the West, save for
some rare instances in the recent past.

The
Arab countries that used to be close to Soviet policies should have
reconsidered their positions and stances, following the collapse of the eastern
bloc. In truth, the late President Saddam Hussein was perhaps the first one to
miss this rule. Before the start of the second Gulf war and following his
invasion of Kuwait, he thought that he could rely on Soviet defiance, all the
while ignoring the fact that the withdrawal of the Kremlin’s forces from
Afghanistan was the beginning of the end, and that a country such as Iraq could
not possibly achieve in the Middle East, what Moscow had failed to accomplish
within the bygone era of the Grand Areas. In this vein, Tarek Aziz, the man who
is currently asking that his death sentence be expedited, was the first to
flaunt the idea that Mr. President should not be disturbed, when he refused to
receive then-U.S. Secretary of State James Baker’s communiqué. The picture
seems so terrifying, when not disturbing the ruler by conveying facts on the
grounds, translates into exposing hundreds of thousands of Iraqis to killing,
harm and displacement.

One
repercussion of that Iraqi experience is that the delusion of having the
Soviets fight wars on behalf of their so-called Arab allies has died out. But
those who are not convinced by the Iraqi case have also missed the reiteration
of the situation with Col. Gaddafi. Further, the same scenario will most
probably be repeated in the Syrian crisis, although the similarity between
Souria and Roussia [Arabic for Syria and Russia] is nothing but the result of
an alphabetic accident.

So
the same assumptions are being rehashed, assumptions that will lead to the same
old results and consequences. At the pinnacle of its power, the Soviet Union
offered nothing to its allies but Kalashnikovs and the dream of graduating from
the Patrice Lumumba University. And the Soviet Union found no shame in
establishing diplomatic ties with Israel and sending its Jews in great numbers
over there. How can the heirs of the Red ideology – as they have replaced the
statue of Lenin with jeans and pop music – possibly care for anything other
than Russian interests, which have often strived on the promises of the
capitalist West?

This
time, the Arab revolutions did not take place under the effect of external calamities.
No outside solutions or methods, such as external alliances, for containing
these disasters can be sought after. Even those who are criticizing the
practice of meddling in other countries’ domestic affairs are actually
contradicting their own ideas, because they are placing their bets on some kind
of a Russian intervention, in the form of a role that is the equivalent of that
of the devil’s advocate. But the odd thing is that the experiences of the
Russians did not reach the extent of making them even more royalist than the
king, so to speak. Moscow realizes that jumping over some considerations and
barriers is forbidden or at least futile, except for achieving some kind of
gains.

The
delusion of a Russian salvation is thus lost amidst the larger international
equations. But, more dangerously, some sides are replacing it with another
delusion, namely of inventing lies and believing them, lies that purport that
the current events are not the outcome of the popular revolutions, but rather
that of roving groups of outlaws. But in truth, any laws that cause such groups
to emerge everywhere will inevitably do away with rulers that have no
consideration for historical logic or justice.

About Me

I graduated from the French University in Beirut (St Joseph) specialising in Political and Economic Sciences. I started my working life in 1973 as a reporter and journalist for the pan-Arab magazine “Al-Hawadess” in Lebanon later becoming its Washington, D.C. correspondent. I subsequently moved to London in 1979 joining “Al-Majallah” magazine as its Deputy Managing Editor. In 1984 joined “Assayad” magazine in London initially as its Managing Editor and later as Editor-in-Chief. Following this, in 1990 I joined “Al-Wasat” magazine (part of the Dar-Al-Hayat Group) in London as a Managing Editor. In 2011 I became the Editor-In-Chief of Miraat el-Khaleej (Gulf Mirror). In July 2012 I became the Chairman of The Board of Asswak Al-Arab Publishing Ltd in UK and the Editor In Chief of its first Publication "Asswak Al-Arab" Magazine (Arab Markets Magazine) (www.asswak-alarab.com).

I have already authored five books. The first “The Tears of the Horizon” is a love story. The second “The Winter of Discontent in The Gulf” (1991) focuses on the first Gulf war sparked by Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. His third book is entitled “Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: From Balfour Promise to Bush Declaration: The Complications and the Road to a Lasting Peace” (March 2008). The fourth book is titled “How Iran Plans to Fight America and Dominate the Middle East” (October 2008) And the fifth and the most recent is titled "JIHAD'S NEW HEARTLANDS: Why The West Has Failed To Contain Islamic Fundamentalism" (May 2011).

Furthermore, I wrote the memoirs of national security advisor to US President Ronald Reagan, Mr Robert McFarlane, serializing them in “Al-Wasat” magazine over 14 episodes in 1992.

Over the years, I have interviewed and met several world leaders such as American President Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister Margaret Thacher, Late King Hassan II of Morocco, Late King Hussein of Jordan,Tunisian President Zein El-Abedine Bin Ali, Lybian Leader Moammar Al-Quadhafi,President Amine Gemayel of Lebanon,late Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, Late Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat, Haitian President Jean Claude Duvalier, Late United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan,Algerian President Shazli Bin Jdid, Jamaican Prime Minister Edward Siyagha and more...